The Unbearable Suckiness of Drive-Time Radio

I made an incredible discovery yesterday afternoon. I think I have found the single most annoying DJ on the radio (at least in Austin). He has that annoying, syrupy "DJ voice" with the constant fake enthusiasm, talks over the first half of every goddamned song, calls up his buds and talks to them over the air, and just generally grates on the nerves (naturally, I had to waste 20 minutes of my life listening to this goober just to make sure he was as awful as I thought he was).

Why does morning drive-time radio have to suck so hard? Does anyone actually listen to these goobers? Do people actually prefer schtick over music (although, given what passes for music now, maybe that's true)? If I want to hear people jabbering, I'll switch over to NPR's "Morning Edition". At least I'll hear something interesting.

One of our local "classic rock" (oldies for boomers) stations had their own morning show that was okay, but didn't bring in the ratings. So they fire the DJs and run a nationally synicated morning show for about a year. The ratings fall even more, so they drop the syndicated show and just start playing music again, and the ratings go up. The lesson learned? "We needed a different morning show", so now they've picked up another syndicated show, and I think the ratings are dropping again.

Well, because of the poor nature of music on the radio I do like the morning shows. I usually listen to Rob, Arnie, and Dawn. They are syndicated over the Sacramento-Tahoe-Reno/Sparks-Carson City area. Maybe wider. But it's usually pretty decent.

I know what you are talking about. In the morning I have a choice between the redneck radio show of John Boy and Billy, the crappy pop/mix station drole or the local 'classic' rock station (GnR is 'classic' I guess). In the afternoon the 'classic' station has the most annoying asshole I have ever heard, named Robbie Rags. He is a Howard Stern wannabe in the worst way.

It is crap like that that makes me very happy that my commute is only 5 minutes each way.

quote:Originally posted by Neolithic: Well, because of the poor nature of music on the radio I do like the morning shows. I usually listen to Rob, Arnie, and Dawn. They are syndicated over the Sacramento-Tahoe-Reno/Sparks-Carson City area. Maybe wider. But it's usually pretty decent.

I listen to the same thing on the way to work every morning. I don't have a terribly long commute so I only hear about 15-20 minutes a day. Not bad at all, and better than the morning show on the classic rock station from Reno.

Actually, I think radio in general just plain sucks. Where have all the good indy stations gone? Here in Philly there's one station that I would classify as "decent " (WXPN) and one that I would classify as "good enough" (Y100)...however, listening to either one for too long gives me headaches and I have to switch over to NPR or the combo classical/jazz station (and don't even get me started on why a metro area of 5 million people doesn't have a SINGLE decent full-time classical station).

This is why a Hardrive mp3-player connected to the aux-in on the car-stereo is so good. And then I just activate the TA-function on the RDS so that I don't miss any major traffic problems... Good music all the time and no bullshit talking...

However. In Stockholm sweden we have a major pain in the ass speaker on the radio when driving home. Problem is that he works for the station with the best TA. so you either bear with him or do what I do...

And what does this guy do that's so unbearable? Well, when I drive home he decides to call some people up that has been involved in some sort of at least faintly scandalous thing in the papers the last days. And starts questioning them using the same question asked different ways over and over again trying to get the answer he has figured out must be the truth...The worst thing with this is that he mostly has no idea of what he's talking about, and hasn't bothered to check anything even faintly below the surface. It becomes painfully embarrassing to hear most of the times...Best regards

I ususally stay away from Music stations in the car. It makes me feel old, but I end up listening to AM talk radio for the most part. Tony Kornheiser on ESPN radio in the morning, and Game Night in the evening. If I need to relax or am getting fed up with the number of commercials on AM, I switch to the local classical station.

Anyone got XM radio yet (satellite radio with a per month subscription, for those who don't know)? Supposedly they have *good* DJs - ie ones that don't just pull what they play from the approved list. If it works, that might improve drive-time a bit. Also, you can get the signal anywhere in the country, so no more fiddling as you move out of a station's range...

I'm tempted, but the startup cost is high, so I want to know if it is actually as good as billed.

Drive time FM radio DJ's are so annoying, except perhaps those on the "classic rock" station (but who wants to hear More than a feeling for the 20 bazillionth time) that I now listen to either sports talk or news talk, both of which are annoying in its own right, or CD's and thus miss traffic developments. The other thing about AM is that there is 5 minutes of programming and then 5 minutes of commercials.

Here in Portland KNRK (which is played on the 'net if you wanna check it out) has a really good morning show, Gustav and Daria. Daria roXors my boXors. They're smart, they're funny, and they don't try too hard or use phony DJ voices. I actually miss their show now that I commute on the train instead of in the car.

107.5 The Oasis - New Age, Jazz, and Instrumental from the 70's to the present and very little talking other than to tell me what the weather/traffic/news is doing. They do give away a vacation once a day and the DJ's blather about that, but it isn't too bad.

101.1 Classical 101 - All classical music from all genre's. Very little talking, the only exception is the news/traffic reports.

I gave up on radio years ago. I just play CD's. The only time I ever really hear the radio is in the morning when my clock radio wakes me up. I put it on Howard Stern so that I'm forced to take some sort of action when it goes off, just to make him shut up.

since I discovered NPR (6? 7 years ago?) I cannot tolerate commercial radio. Not only are the DJs atrocious in most stations, but the godamn commercials are enuf to make me crazy. If I want music, I pop in a CD. If I want to keep myself awake, sane, and informed for the drive, it's NPR all the way. My only complaint is that my local NPR has a real awful jazz show in the evenings (some kind of light jazz) - in that case I switch to AM talk radio and CDs during the commercial interruptions

quote: Anyone got XM radio yet (satellite radio with a per month subscription, for those who don't know)? Supposedly they have *good* DJs - ie ones that don't just pull what they play from the approved list. If it works, that might improve drive-time a bit. Also, you can get the signal anywhere in the country, so no more fiddling as you move out of a station's range...

I'm tempted, but the startup cost is high, so I want to know if it is actually as good as billed.

I do, and the DJs are great in that you rarely hear them... and the channels I listen to mostly (34, 41, 42, and 150) are uncensored (no annoying bleeping out).

I do listen to NPR most of the way in every morning (it and BBC World News are my primary news sources), it's just that the only opportunity I have to listen to music anymore is while driving, the truck doesn't have a CD player, and even if it did, I want to listen to stuff I don't already have. We do have a Triple A station that's pretty good, but "pretty good" still equals about 25 minutes of ads and happy talk per hour of broadcasting.

My commute's running about an hour each way these days, and there's only so much talk I can tolerate at a time, even if it's news.

However, I live in Indianapolis, home of Bob and Tom. They're the only morning show worth listening to (when their station isn't running yet another fucking advertisement for a jewelry store or a car dealership).

I think aside from Bob and Tom, it all pretty much sucks the goat's ass.

I usually listen to NPR myself when I'm driving around, but my only complaint about the local Boston station (WBUR) is that on Saturday nights at midnight, instead of my beloved BBC, they broadcast some stupid spanish music program instead.

No commercial station can compete with the quality of the NPR station.

I know some people are paranoid about the N in NPR because it might be used as a state propaganda machine. But listening to NPR for 2 years, I find most of the NPR program does not spoon feed you any information, instead it encourages you to think.

However, I find BBC's interview during news broadcast offending. It seems to me BBC's interviewer already has an opinion and will sometimes lead interviewee to a conclusion they want to hear. That is just vile.

A case in example, they once interview a Chinese boy who likes Harry Potter. And the interviewer were just dying to hear the child say "Oh, the Chinese school system sucks. I can't have independent thoughts." It would be okay with me if the boy came to that decision independently. But the interviewer were subtley feeding that decision to the boy. e.g. "Don't you find the Chinese school system restricting?""Doesn't Chinese school officials discourages you from having indepent thoughts?"

It happened a few more times, and now, when BBC comes on, I switch to listening to the Lord of the Rings audio book.

Drew & Mike bore me. All they ever do is make fun of some lame show that was on the night before, call up random people from the tabloids and attempt to make them look stupid, and act like general dorks. The only good things they do are the sports talks with Redmond and Porcher, and the song parodies.

Bob & Tom, on the other hand, are actually funny, with regular guests, hilarious shorts, and are just generally less ascerbic and more fun than D&M.

I only listen to D&M when B&T are on commercial.

-Schpyder

"More fun than a barrel of monkeys... with dynamite strapped to their backs!"

livin in columbus, oh I have my choice, Bob N Tom (gag), Howerd Stern (rather have my nuts run over by a steamroller) or Waggs and elliot... of the 3, Waggs and Elliot is actually pretty funny... they have good guests, and play good music.. its a classic rock station, but alot of stuff i listened to in the 80's as a kid is becoming classic rock real fast

KFI AM 640 here in LA is a big station. They have some good talk-jocks covering news in the morning and afternoon. Bill Handel in the morning (somewhat annoying) along with a guy for sports and weather and such.

Unfortunately, KFI has gotten so popular, commercials are out of control. The longest block of content is from :06 after the hour to :24. That's a nice long block, but EVERYTHING else is just about 4-7 minutes, and the last spot is only 2 minutes.

So you're going to be listening to about 32 minutes of content and 28 minutes of commercials (the news spots are only about 2 minutes) per hour.

It's insane. And it's really frustrating when you've been a long time listener and realize that those extra 6 minutes you expected at the bottom of the hour are now commercials.